


Redeeming Dream

by PetraMysticaCLXV



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Administrator Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Aftermath of Torture, Alternate Universe, Angst, Author is a Clay | Dream Apologist (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream Angst (Video Blogging RPF), Gen, Hurt Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Hurt/Comfort, Implied fundywastaken, Injury, Injury Recovery, Medical Inaccuracies, Multi, Prisoner Clay | Dream (Video Blogging RPF), Recovery, Solitary Confinement, Temporary Character Death, implied dreanotfound, no beta we die like men, you know dream have two hands
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-17 09:00:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29839137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PetraMysticaCLXV/pseuds/PetraMysticaCLXV
Summary: Dream is finally being released under conditions of probation and parole of good conduct. But it will be never the same with a prison that is meant to dehumanize its convicts.Dream really did change, but at what cost?
Relationships: Dream SMP Ensemble & Dream SMP Ensemble
Comments: 94
Kudos: 731





	1. Restart

**Author's Note:**

> No lines are meant to be crossed.

Warden Sam dreaded this day.

The one and only prisoner of the Pandora’s Vault will be freed today, just as what King Eret decreed a month ago, of course it has raised protests from the majority of the constituents of the SMP lands, but in the end the monarchy still won. With a referral from Bad’s part and Eret’s status, it has been signed that Dream of the Greater SMP will be given back his liberty, under the condition that Dream will still be under probation, which means not handling of weapons like a sword and bow and arrows, explosives, and he is to be under supervision of a someone who will volunteer and can treat Dream with fairness.

* * *

“Take it as a parole for good conduct,” Eret says, overlooking to the most of the server on the podium in his throne room, most of them have raised their protest making a ruckus in the castle, at this the king raised his hand to cease the escalating conflict,

“Order please!” Eret raises his voice,

“Eret! This is Dream we are talking about!” it’s Tubbo, the former president may have a small stature still, but his present has become known in the throne room,”He deserves to be stuck in there!”,

“To be honest, Tubbo, if we are going to talk about what is deserving and fair, most of us should be sulking in a solitary cell in Pandora!” Technoblade’s monotonous voice drawls, “I say I should be also in there, and Phil, actually let’s add Wilbur and Schlatt there!”, the last part is received with an “oi!” from the former president-slash-emperor who now owns a pub in the SMP, Schlatt coughs at the smoke that Wilbur blew from his cigar,

“I might also add, Dream is hundred percent not the same as when you dumped him there,” Wilbur blows another puff from the cigar he makes and sell, most of the people turns at him with concern, the also former president just shrugs and take another intake of tobacco. A pair of yellow wings flutter to a blond man’s direction,

“Tommy?” Quackity, the owner of the wings asked, nudging the young adult who has been still for the duration of the discussion,

Tommy shrugs, “Do what you want, as long as he’s away from me, I’m good,” he remembers the too dull jade eyes of the person who killed and resurrected him, Tubbo stares at him like he’s seen a ghost,

“I will have to say,” Niki rises, “In what reason do you really want Dream out of Pandora? We finally have stability in the server, sure we had him help about the Egg and the resurrections back then, but why let the man who cause most of grief in the server free? Why now?”,

“For your information Niki, it’s actually Wilbur and Tommy who started the chaos, but yeah, Dream made the most damage,” Fundy rebuts,

“Oh, so suddenly you’re defending your former fiance?” Quackity mocks,

“I’m not _just_ defending Dream, Quackity, and also, we are still engaged, the wedding got canceled formally, but not our engagement,” the half-fox replies, but it's not like he's hoping he will be wed soon or ever,

“Keep on fooling yourself, man,” the duck hybrid rolls his eyes,

Eret clears their throat, gesturing to Bad, “I will answer Niki’s question with the help of our physician-on-call,” the king states, and the doctor joins Eret on the podium, with a document about Dream’s physical and mental health inside the prison, with a qualification of him also being a guard inside there, for the whole time Bad is giving his report, Sam being the warden of the prison is silent, so are most of the attendees, some have a cold glare in their eyes, others are glum, but only a handful have concern written in their faces. Bad ended stating that Dream is still a person, and that’s one of the reasons why they will free Dream from Pandora’s Vault.

“With that, a month from now on, we will welcome Dream back to our commune, with a warm embrace,” Eret looks at every pair of eyes in their court, “Taking in consideration that most of you would rather avoid confrontation, we already prepared a space a bit off the way from the SMP lands for him to stay,” the king looks at the duo of Philza and Technoblade, the Antartic Anarchist Commune taking the responsibility to make a rather secure but cozy shack near their territory.

Actually, Eret went for them first after he asked Bad in helping with the endeavour, having learned that its only them where Dream parted with good terms, both accepted in exchange of not involving them with SMP’s internal chaos and shindig, and further prevention of any type of reformation with the same idea of “Butcher’s Army”, their last and only concern now is making sure Dream is taken care with.

“He’s an admin of this world,” Philza says, the immortal shaking away the snow from his raven wings, “We don’t want to know what will happen if something bad happens to him, after all Dream is still connected with everything in this world,”.

* * *

The lava curtain falls to reveal the solitary on the other side of the scorching pool. The warden tilts his head to Bad, who is the only one cleared to fetch Dream, the demon steps on the stone platform. With each chug of the machine tension rises to the personnel of the prison, sure Eret had visited Dream more than a couple of months ago, which may have been the real reason why the monarch is getting him out of prison, the king have safely returned from visitation, and with them brought a forlorn expression etched behind their eyeglasses and crown.

Bad reaches the cell and the netherite bars fall flat to the floor, and the lava back to its flow. The demon finds the masked man in the center of the cell, sitting in a cross-legged position, hands laid on his lap with the handcuffs rusted but holding the prisoner’s raw wrists.

“Dream?” he calls for his friend, a prick of regret in his heart, the months of just observing the man from the viewing platform as he deteriorates is finally taking its toll. Bad slowly approaches the prisoner, the steady rise and fall of his chest being a confirmation that Dream is still alive. The demon lets himself touch his old friend, and that stirs Dream from his slumber, behind the porcelain mask dull jaded eyes open slowly unfocused and unknown if it is still seeing,

“We are freeing you now, Dream,” Bad makes sure his voice is gentle to Dream’s ears, “Can you stand up?” he asks the masked man, “If not I can just carry you,” he waits for an answer that is never given, and after a long while Bad decides to just carry Dream outside the premises, careful not to pull any remaining muscle and blond-turned-white hair that lengthened with the period that Dream has been left alone inside the prison.

For the first time ever, Dream feels the cool of the breeze outside, did he really feel it though?


	2. Reattach

Bad swung open the door from his office, turning to the cot that is by an open window a lump of green lay, earmuffs kindly attached on the green person to block of harsh sounds from the environment, blindfold thin enough to see thru, but Dream hasn’t woken up yet, nor showed any signs of acknowledgment to his surroundings. He leaves his office to meet the ones who are waiting for him outside, Fundy, George, Phil, and Sam.

“He’s stable so far, sleeping,” the doctor announces, Fundy and George nods,

“I’ll come back later, then,” Phil tips his bucket hat before leaving the clinic, planning on joining Techno to prepare in their commune,

Fundy fidgets with his paws, one is interlocked with George, “Can we see him?” the fox asks, Bad nods at them and they enter his office, the demon turns to Sam and gestures to him to come, the creeper hybrid follows and both of them enters Schlatt’s pub, opting for a more private corner of the establishment.

The half-goat hands them two full mugs of ale and leaves to entertain H’s group, which includes Puffy and Niki.

“Sam,” Bad starts, taking a sip from the strong brew, they will need it, “Let’s review what happened in the vault, I’ve been out of it most of the time because of the Egg- I’m sorry about that by the way-”, the creeper waves it off also taking a huge gulp from his mug, “-did you do anything else that I do not know off?” the demon clears his throat with a rough near-growl, “Anything except for the total solitary?”

Sam is silent for a long time, opting on finishing two more mugs of his alcohol,

“A lot, especially when he killed Tommy inside,” the warden admitted, “Bastard he is, and even reviving the boy, he probably already forgot it, or maybe he buried it so deep by now,” he finishes his third mug -or fourth, unsure if he is referring to Dream or Tommy, “The problem with inflicting pain is that when done too much, you become numb to it,”,

“You’re a twisted muffinhead, Sam,”,

“At this point, we all are, maybe except Ranboo, but even that is questionable. The thing is, I made sure to break him, but in the end, I did not, when I got Tommy out of Pandora, away from him, I just left him there, to rot, and rot he did,”,

“He doesn’t deserve that you know,” Bad decides to direct his eyes to the other group that is in the pub, unknowing to their discussion, the warm light highlights their smiles and enjoyment, “Sam, he’s still human,”,

“He designed the prison to be like that,”,

“Now, you’re redirecting blame that you should own,”,

“Bad, I’ve blamed myself enough already,” Sam tried to take another sip with his ale, only to find it empty, “And… he’s the reason that…”,

Bad shakes his head, “As you said, every one of us here is awful,”,

“Dream is the most awful, he’s a god of awfulness,” Sam gruffed with his drunkenness,

The demon leaves their table, tipsy but not as drunk as the creeper that was once a brilliant builder, now a maker of tools of torture,

“You know, he did not design the Pandora that way, I saw the blueprints, Dream wanted it to be a place for redemption, not of torment and suffering,” the black cloak waves with Bad’s sway, “He isn’t- wasn’t that awful, I know Dream since I came to this world, I learned him from George’s stories, he isn’t the awful villain that most of you thought him be now, Dream was an agent of chaos, but remember he was also the same person who also once mediated a fair trial in the SMP court,”,

“He was unfair to Tommy,” Sam quipped, "And that court is now destroyed,”,

“Like how this world destroyed him too when he made it with his own two hands,” Bad threw back, “You can say I am still blinded by the Egg’s influence, but I have my own perspective, Dream may have been unfair with Tommy, but Dream did not receive a trial when you decided to put him inside Pandora when Tommy still received one when he was sentenced for exile,”,

“Are you sorry, Sam?” the demon’s last question,

The creeper shakes his head,

“Then Dream will also have the right not to apologize, after all these,”,

Bad opens the door out of the pub, an overlooking former emperor gazing at his departure, yellow eyes shining with concern.

* * *

“-hat are you doin- -ere?”,

Two heads turn to the speaker,

“-here I am…?,”,

“You’re in Bad’s clinic,” Fundy held himself from choking on his breath,

“Wha- am I doin- -ere?”,

The fox hybrid stands up from his chair, knocking it down, George perks up from his seat a heavy sigh escaping from him as he also clutched on Dream’s porcelain broken mask,

“It’s alright, Dream, you’re free now,” the half-fox smiles, large teardrops threatening to fall from his eyes, “You’re never going back to that cell,”,

“But- it’s already com-ortable there, take me home,” Dream rasps, “I don’t want to be here,”,

George grips on Dream’s arm,

“Get away from me…!” Dream’s eyes are clouded but solid and shining with a green glow, turning to the blurred orange and blue figures, a static looms making their hair and fur stand. George rises up from his place and hurriedly pulls Fundy with him out of the room as vines of electricity emerges from Dream, in time a crack almost reached them both as they closed the door. The duo slid down from the wall they are leaning, letting out the adrenaline their encounter caused. A thunder of footsteps came to the front door,

“Bad?” someone called outside, “George, are you alright? I know you’re there, I will open the door,” revealing a white headband wearing man, Sapnap,

“I heard a large boom from here,” the man gasped, then he spots the heaving duo, “Did he hurt you,” and Sapnap unsheathes his netherite sword shining with magic, “I knew this was a wrong idea, I will kill him,”,

“Sapnap!” George cries, his shades cooked on his nose, “Don’t”, but he was too late as Sapnap opened the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment and leave a kudos, also be kind in commenting <3


	3. Recoil

Sapnap stands in front of a wild cornered animal, the man raises his netherite sword, enchanted with the strongest spells, he’s also armored the suit shining to make it harder and stronger. Sapnap also knows who is the one he’s facing. Cracking with energy that almost no one in the server knows the opponent has, administrator magic unstable because of the lack of use, or the lack of the stability of its holder. Sapnap takes note of the animal in front of him, Dream, the fallen admin, but still and sole admin of the world they knew as their home.

Dream shook as the force he’s grown to only to forget flows within his very self, the long white hair blocking his already impaired vision, but he knows someone is in front of him, someone who intends to harm him, in his mind everyone intends to harm him, especially the one who is in front of him. A foreign feel blows to his right, and a curtain of white opens, Dream jumps out of the open space that leads him anywhere else except the four corners of his confinement and his future tormentor.

The fire-born warrior runs after Dream, blurring out of Bad’s office, suppressing the happy memories of their manhunt days, Dream will run and try to get to the End Dragon’s realm to kill the monster, and they will chase after him with the intention to stop him with the most lethal means as, after all, death is never the conclusion of their stories. Sapnap finds his game rolling on the grass standing up in one swoop and charges away from the building he is in, he curses hoping for Dream’s deterioration included his agility, it was proven through when Sapnap shot an arrow tipped with a potion of weakness. Dream recoiled with impact, curling as he reached for the arrow that hit him on his back, crying in raspy wails. Sapnap landed on the green, walking to Dream with his sword raised, this is no friend of his, not anymore.

“Dream,” the fire-born glares on the fallen, a shine of jaded orb hidden by strands of matted alabaster hair, Sapnap receives incoherent bawling.

“Sapnap! You motherfucker!”, Sapnap turns to who just cussed him to see a pair of pitch-black wings raised with a threat, “Let go of Dream!” Phil exclaimed, summoning his own _Benihime_ and pointed it to the man that is terrorizing his charge, on the winged man’s other hand a communicator turned to a shield, Sapnap in turn grabs Dream’s dangerously thin arm but let it go immediately as a shock of electricity bites his palm, the admin crumples to a painful thud and crawls away from his assailant, crackles of energy still lingering around him like a halo. Seeing that Dream is far enough from Sapnap already, Phil surges forward the sharp of his netherite katana pointed for a strike. Sapnap and Phil began their clashing.

Netherite clashes with netherite, sparks fly as the heat from Sapnap’s blade meets the chilling bite of Phil’s metal. The fire-born warrior is stronger and more experienced with duels against rational opponents, while the winged man’s prowess is with speed and evasion. Soon Sapnap overpowers Phil’s rapid strikes, after all, that is similar to Dream’s former signature of battling with quick slashes and rapid movement, the old immortal Phil lands in a heap of black feathers, his back meeting an agonizing crunch against a tree trunk after Sapnap let a wide swipe of his fiery broadsword against the thin katana.

Sapnap turns to Dream, to see him holding a shining unenchanted diamond sword, the wild man attacks the blur of white fire, and glowing hot netherite meets a cold diamond rod. Dream’s feral attempt is futile as his former friend and ally threw his summoned weapon that shattered with one strong swipe from the molten blade. The rabid admin crumpled under the point of burning metal.

“My promise is to take your life if ever you take a step outside of that hell you deserved,” Sapnap recites a paraphrase of his oath,

In a moment of clarity Dream replies, “Make sure -his one sticks,”.

Sapnap burns a hole through Dream’s abdomen, and the other man collapses with a yelp of searing pain. Sapnap meets a crunching punch from a pink fist.

* * *

Bad bites his lower lip as he paced around the security’s locker room. Following the ruckus that happened earlier many of the people of the SMP wanted to put Dream back in Pandora, Bad insisted on not doing so and retorted that it is Sapnap who started the fight and made the most damage to it, thankfully it wasn’t just Phil who bear witness, but also Fundy and George who supported the anarchist. The meeting in Eret’s court concluded with Sapnap spending at least a month inside Pandora in one of its regular cells, much to Quakity’s chagrin as he defended his fiance in the session. The demon scoffs, serves him well, the darker side of his mind wanting to put Sapnap inside the traitorous solitary cell where they left Dream, they haven’t cleaned it yet and the room is still bearing the pieces of evidence of Dream’s further descent. But the duck lawyer had to be good enough to avoid such a verdict for the fire-born.

“How’s Dream?” Ant asked, looking behind him as if he’s dealing with contraband,

“Fuc- fudging Sapnap, the muffin-head set back whatever lucidity Dream gained when he first awoke,” Bad caught himself before breaking his promise not to curse, he’s finding it hard nowadays, the demon let out a heavy sighed, “He’s basically as catatonic as when we pulled him out of solitary, maybe even worse,”.

Warden Sam calls them from the lobby as Sapnap just arrived to be booked inside the prison, the fire-born struggled against the netherite cuffs as the creeper hybrid grips on the man’s arm pushing him further the prison, doing his duty as the warden of Pandora’s Vault.

“You’re lucky you're only going inside one of the regular cells,” Sam unlocks the cuffs as the demon and the half-cat holds both of Sapnap’s arms,

“You are lucky enough to even get a trial,” Bad scowled, and the warden gave a low growl, it seems that he still remembers their alcohol-ridden conversation in Schlatt’s pub. The three pushes Sapnap inside the cell, slamming the iron door against the new prisoner’s face.

* * *

Technoblade guards on the office door inside Bad’s clinic, glaring his red eyes against anyone that is nosy enough to peek or ask him how is Dream doing, at this point George and Fundy tried to pry the formidable anarchist to no avail, Quackity got a kick for shooting a rocket-loaded crossbow inside the building and is now being man-handled to the castle with the former duo’s help, and Tommy is shooed away for trying to trident up to the window where Dream is resting or staring away his time.

The blood god’s acolyte opens the door to the office,

“Wake up, nerd,” he insults the white-haired man, and only meeting half-lidded faded green eyes unfocused and blurred to what they see.

“ _This is going to be hard_ ,” the anarchist sighs and turns,

“Why-?” Techno heard Dream croak, the half-pig shakes his head, his rival giving him the unexpected again,

“Why? Because the server is boring me to death, Dream,” Techno replies with his monotone, “And I don’t want to die because of boredom, that’s L,”. There’s a sound of a smile turning to a tired sigh from the admin, the anarchist accepts the little victory.


	4. Render

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!!!! I am backkkkkk yasssss. the bonsai's deadline is supposedly May....It's fucking MArch kksanJKsk, now I have to take of a goddamn coconut bonsai for two more months and I swear as soon as Labor's day ended I will send the damned thing to my school first thing in the morning grrrrrrrrrrr.
> 
> Author meant not to cross any lines

Bad enters the clinic to find Techno assisting Dream who just finished puking his guts out. The admin is shaking under the anarchist’s arms, coughing on bile and vomit. The demon doctor bites his lower lip, finding something edible for Dream that isn’t made of potatoes is becoming quite an impossible task, the young starved man would just end up throwing it up in the toilet bowl, leaving them all in guilt and exhaustion. Techno lets Dream sit up on his cot’s side, as the blood god’s acolyte leaves his side to get a glass of water outside, on the way he spots Bad about to enter the office where Dream is.

“Hallo,” Techno frowns at the water dispenser’s direction, a cup in his hand, “We dropped off Quackity- who had a gal to show-up here and launch a damn loud rocket inside-, he’s on his way to Eret’s castle -well, it’s Fundy and George really, I still don’t care about the monarchy, especially a puppet one,” the hybrid finishes filling the cup with lukewarm water, “Maybe you should go, I may or may not have roughed up that duck,”,

Bad sighs, “You’ll be alright there?”,

The half-piglin grunts in confirmation, the demon takes that and leaves the clinic, sure of his patient’s safety.

* * *

He enters a shouting match between George and Fundy versus Quackity who is now backed by Tubbo.

“-D A WEAPON!!!” roared Quakity who is nursing a broken nose and a black eye while being held back by Tubbo,

“IT WAS SAPNAP’S FAULT!” Fundy angrily growled, “If he hadn’t attacked Dream that night, he wouldn’t have fought,” the fox is being guarded by the shaded George,

Eret sees the doctor, who smiled in his direction, his own sunglasses hiding the worry in his glowing eyes as the monarch suppresses another incoming migraine,

“Uh,” Bad pointed at Quackity, “Uh- Nosebleed,”, the half-duck sniffed as he wiped off dripping blood with an equally bloodied hand. Quackity lets Bad handle his broken nose and swollen eye, wincing as alcohol touched the open wounds on his face,

“Any more?” the demon asks,

Quackity raises the left sleeve of his pants, revealing a deep gash on his thigh where George tried to stab him with a netherite dagger, the duck hybrid sees the king leave the room,

“Eret, don’t you dare leave, you coward!” he roared, the non-binary authority froze on Quackity’s next imposition, “I demand a hearing about Dream’s possession of a weapon!”, on his knee Bad also enforced more pressure on the wound, making the yellow-winged flinch with a hiss,

“Do you fudging know how hard it is to mend the large hole Sapnap made on Dream’s stomach?” the demon doctor growled, tying a tight knot around the bandage, making Quackity shriek in pain and glared at the healer, “Do you?!” and all the almost nine-foot glory stood above the demandant, “And you have the audacity to storm in my clinic to blast a rocket, where someone who is still erratic and unstable is trying to rest?!”,

Quackity narrowed his eyes further gathering his composure, “You said it yourself, he’s erratic and unstable, what guarantee do you have that he won’t destroy the server when he regains the strength he had,”,

The curer remained silent, too frustrated with the other’s reason, at the corner Eret is struggling to find an answer that won’t make him look like he is biased, after all, Dream did give him the position because of his neutrality,

“No answer?” the duck smiled then snorted, “I knew it-” a slap came to Quackity’s cheek, Fundy being the one who dealt the blow,

“Fuck you!” the fox hybrid growled, “Fuck you and how narrow-minded you are!”,

“And you’re blinded!” the duck taunted, pointing at the slapper and then George, “By what? Love? Love also fucking made me blind, Fundy!” narrowed glare turned to George, “George! I was in love once, and look where that fucking went, the monster is having fun dealing liquor in the SMP all content with the fact that he thought he was right!” Quackity roared, “Content with the fact that the so-called country that he is supposed to take care of is now a large crater uninhabitable to all!”,

Fundy was about to slap him again, then another hand stopped him,

“Let’s all calm down, shall we?” it’s Skeppy, eyes fawning to his now-husband, the doctor, he turns to Eret, who now has their shoulders sagged in relief,

“Let’s,” Eret decided, “Meet up here after three days-” the king turns to Bad, who frowned, but nodded still, “-have Sapnap represent, then show the pieces of evidence so we can thoroughly decide what should be done,”,

Quackity’s smile falls at the monarch’s next announcement,

“Then also have a hearing about how you fired an explosive inside a closed building that could have been lethal,” the king said, and with that, they all left the castle limping, growling, grumbling, and shushing.

* * *

Bad groaned, “Ugh! If only I did not swear on the Hippocratic oath I would break his legs in one hundred and more ways!”, Skeppy just smiled running his palms on his husband’s shoulders,

“No need to get violent, Hon,” the bedazzled man grasps his partner’s hands, raising them to his chest, “These hands are meant to heal, always,”,

“Stop flattering me,” the demon blushed, “I don’t deserve it, especially when I just let Dream deteriorate inside that hellhole,”, Skeppy tiptoed and gave a kiss on Bad’s cheek, which made the demon flush with a glow,

“What is done is done. Right now, your focus should be on how to help our dear friend recuperate, and as far as I can see, you are doing a good job, he’s talking with Techno with his bouts of better lucidity, and he’s recovering well despite that burn on his gut,” says Skeppy,

“How did I deserve you?” Bad asks,

Skeppy replies with another kiss and this time Bad leaned down to meet his partner’s lips with his own.

“Let's,” and the duo walks back to the clinic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As per usual comments are highly welcome, but please be nice to each other ^_^

**Author's Note:**

> Please comment and give kudos :)


End file.
